Concerned by the lack of progress of three children seen in three different settings, an EBD School (school for children with emotional and behavioural disturbance), a Day Unit and a Clinic, the therapist noted a particularly destructive constellation in both their inner and outer worlds. Whilst physical and sexual abuse can now evoke speedy external action, emotional abuse is not given enough attention despite official guidelines. In the absence of a safe external structure to deal with this, the child is left far more at the mercy of internal attachments which can be lethal. Where a child is mentally or multiply handicapped it can be even harder to extricate himself from a destructive relationship.